circumstellar
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of circumstellar
Explanation
Things, conditions, or phenomena that are circumstellar revolve around or exist in the region around a star. For example, some stars have circumstellar disks of gas, dust, and debris orbiting them. In addition to circumstellar disks, there are circumstellar winds — streams of particles that flow outward from a star. Astronomers also talk about "circumstellar habitable zones," where conditions around a star can support life as we know it. The star at the center of our solar system is the Sun; of the planets orbiting the Sun, only Earth is in its circumstellar habitable zone, while Venus and Mars are on the edges of it. Circumstellar is built from circum-, "around," and stellar, "of the stars."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This source became known as Fomalhaut cs1, short for circumstellar source 1.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 7, 2026
This marks where the supernova blast wave is ramming into surrounding circumstellar material.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 12, 2023
The results for 2023ixf suggest the latter, marking the earliest-ever detailed glimpse scientists have obtained of the rapidly evolving interaction between a supernova’s shockwave and the surrounding circumstellar material.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 21, 2023
Since V883 Orionis' circumstellar disk is hot enough that the water in it has turned into gas, astronomers saw an opportunity to study it to help understand the evolution of water in solar systems.
From Salon ● Mar. 15, 2023
The star is embedded in a shroud of dust and gas that obscures our visible-light view of a circumstellar disk around the star.
From Textbooks ● Oct. 13, 2016
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
